The trouble with righting some wrongs is that it makes the remaining ones seem even more unbearable.
A. A. GillRead
Suits are malevolent magicians' sleeves for socialists, full of patrician loops and tricks, small, embroidered, cryptic messages of deference and privilege. They are ever the uniform of the enemy. They are also the greatest British invention ever.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the societal implications of suits, portraying them as symbols of class and privilege, while also acknowledging their cultural significance.
A. A. Gill's quote reflects a deep ambivalence towards the suit as a garment. While he views it as a tool of the elite, used to signal status and maintain social hierarchies, he also recognizes its iconic status in British culture. The use of language suggests that suits not only serve as clothing but also as complex symbols of power, privilege, and social stratification, challenging the reader to consider their meanings beyond mere fashion.
Themes
SuitsSocietyPrivilegeClassFashionIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social status and identity during a corporate seminar.
More from A. A. Gill
All quotes →If the world were to end tomorrow and we could choose to save only one thing as the explanation and memorial to who we were, then we couldn't do better than the Natural History Museum, although it wouldn't contain a single human. The systematic Linnean order, the vast inquisitiveness and range of collated knowledge and beauty would tell all that is the best of us.
A. A. GillRead
Sport is how poor kids from poor countries pass through the eye of the needle to riches and recognition.
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Being able to afford everything you desire is not, by any means, the worst thing that can happen to you. But, depressingly, and more profoundly, neither is it the best.
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America didn’t bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.
A. A. GillRead
Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.
A. A. GillRead
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